Truth is the beginning of wisdom…

Quotes To Ponder

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse [money, bounty, assistance, gifts] from the public treasury.
- Alexis de Tocqueville

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
- Alexander Frazer Tytler

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Archive for April, 2009

Arlen Specter has put his loyalty to his own political career above his duty to his state and nation … typical of self-serving politicians who are not there for what they can do for their constituents but for themselves!

Arlen Specter’s party change should outrages you for two reasons:

First… Specter claimed it was philosophical – and pointed his finger of blame at Republicans all over America for his defection to the Democrats. I don’t believe that for a minute because from his own mouth he said it was the only way he would have any chance of winning, thereby committing a purely political and self-serving act. His love for the title of Senator was more important than loyalty to those that elected him.

As recently as April 9th, Senator Specter said he would run in the Pennsylvania primary next year as a Republican. Why the sudden change of heart? Clearly, this was an act based on political expediency by a craven politician desperate to keep his Washington power base … this is not the act of a bona fide statesman.

He was facing defeat in Pennsylvania’s 2010 Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record, and an end to his 30 year (too long) career in the U.S. Senate. He had also peddled his services – and his vote – to the leftist Obama Democrats who aim to remake America with their leftist plan.

Second… Arlen Specter handed Barack Obama and his band of radical leftists nearly absolute power in the United States Senate. In leaving the Republican Party and joining the Democrats he absolutely undercut Republicans’ efforts to slow down Obama’s radical agenda through the threat of filibuster.

His defection to the Democrat Party puts the Democrats in an almost unstoppable position to pass Obama’s destructive agenda of income redistribution, health care nationalization, and a massive expansion of entitlements.

When Adolph Hitler took power in Germany, he recognized immediately that the major threat to his tyrannical designs would come from the church. He reasoned if he could neutralize the voice of the church there would be no one else to stand in his way.

Consequently, he immediately cranked up the Nazi propaganda machine to develop slogans designed to silence the voice of the church, slogans which were then relentlessly hammered into the minds of the people who meekly complied.

Hitler crafted two slogans in particular that became the bulldozers he used to push the church to the margins of the culture and silence its freedom to speak truth. This caused the truth, that could have powered the liberty of the entire world, to be threatened. Now, liberty was only preserved at the cost of millions of lives, including hundreds of thousands of America’s finest young men.

These slogans, mind you, do not come from the United States Constitution or from Thomas Jefferson or from the mind of the Founding Fathers. These slogans come straight from the mind of Adolph Hitler, and bear a sobering similarity to the mantras of the ACLU, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

Here are those slogans straight from the mind of Adolph Hitler:

“Politics do not belong in the Church.”

“The Church must be separate from the State.”

If they sound eerily familiar, it will only be because you instinctively recognize in these words the voice of tyranny and repression. Hitler himself drove the pilings even deeper when he said, in December of 1934, “The Nazi State will however not tolerate under any circumstances any new or any continued political activity of the denominations.”

In the same speech, he added these ominous words: “But we will ensure the purging from our public life of all those priests who have mistaken their profession and who ought to have been politicians and not pastors.”

The objective of the Nazi regime was virtually identical to the agenda of today’s ACLU: Contain the voice of the church within the four walls of its buildings, turning them into nothing more than echo chambers, and punish any effort of church leaders to make their voices heard in the public square.

Further, in a manner that is strikingly reminiscent of efforts to purge any references to God from our public systems of education, Josef Goebbels said the following in August, 1935: “To educate the young people into religious ways may perhaps be the task of the Church, but to educate the young in politics is very much our affair … The youth belongs to us and we will yield them to no one.”

All church youth groups were banned in favor of the Hitler Youth, which became the only legal youth organization in the country. Churches were no longer permitted to hold any meetings in public venues. They were instead locked up inside their sanctuaries, forbidden to speak their message outside the four walls of their church buildings.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The current restraint on the freedom of the church in America to speak truth to political power was imposed in 1954 through the efforts of then Sen. Lyndon Johnson. Johnson, incensed at some non-profit organizations for opposing his most recent run for office, suspended the sword of the IRS over the necks of any religious leader who would dare to stand for justice and truth in the nation’s political life. And so today’s church is still paying the price for this small-minded politician’s petty and vengeful ability to use the power of the federal government to punish his adversaries.

Prior to 1954, churches had the freedom to be as engaged in matters of public policy as they chose. They were free to be actively engaged without fear of punishment, and free to be completely uninvolved in political matters if they so chose. That, my friends, is liberty, both of the religious and political kind.

While churches may still today distribute non-partisan voter guides, and pastors are free to speak to the moral issues of the day, watchdogs from the ACLU and other leftist groups are lurking around every corner, looking to pounce on any religious leader who would dare use his influence to help shape the direction of America’s public policy.

Judicial activism has turned the First Amendment on its head, and the very provision intended by the Framers to protect religious liberty is now being used to repress it.

The remedy? First, Congress should repeal LBJ’s onerous 1954 IRS restriction. Second, we must elect a president who will appoint justices to the Supreme Court who understand the original intent of the First Amendment and will restore constitutional freedoms of religion and speech in full to America’s churches.

Then, and only then, can we be assured that true American liberty will be preserved for us, for our children, and for their children after them.

In reading Hosea 4:6-10 substitute the word leaders for priests: “6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. 7 The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. 8 They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness. 9 And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. 10 “They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not increase, because they have deserted the LORD to give themselves.”

The following quote can be traced back to Alexander Fraser Tyler. It is worthy of repeating and expounding in relation to present day America and the state of our union. Where are we really headed?

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a louse fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence:”

“from bondage to spiritual faith;” – The Great Awakening of the 1730’s in the American Colonies was a time of revival and spiritual longing. Jonathon Edwards, considered by many to be America’s greatest mind, led the revival with Biblical sermons and a fire for truth. Edwards taught the unvarnished truth about sinful man and our accountability to an Almighty God. Not surprisingly, he is mocked and laughed at today, but that is more of an indictment of our society than Edwards preaching. Pastor Edward’s great composition, Freedom of the Will has never been refuted by any scholar. This was a critical step in developing the conviction to fear God and not man. Even if man, at that time, happened to be the largest empire in the world – the British Empire.

“from spiritual faith to great courage;” – Spiritual faith leads to great courage based upon convictions worth sacrificing for. A person who does not stand for something, will fall for anything. Think of the true heroes throughout history. One of the uniting principles that all heroes have is a willingness to stand for truth and convictions in a world of untruth and apathy. The Founding Families had great courage to stand for the truth of against tyranny and oppression. They did this because they knew the Bible said, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.” The British were moving in the direction of excessive taxation and the Colonist would not sit back and allow an offsite government to tax the local colonists.

“from courage to liberty;” – The Colonist’s defeat of the British Empire was not a defeat of British military forces as much as a victory over British will. The Colonists were fighting for their deeply held principles of liberty that they were willing to give their life, wealth and sacred honor for. The British were fighting for some extra taxation in one of their many colonies. The American will defeated the British will because of the convictions involved. With the defeat of Cornwallis and the genius of our American Constitution, liberty reigned in the United States.

“from liberty to abundance;” – The abundance generated by free enterprise and limited government was one of America’s biggest blessings, but also one of our biggest challenges. One of the few standing economies after WWII was America’s. Our products flowed to nearly all foreign markets creating the wealthiest society in the world’s history. It takes incredible discipline to remember where our blessings come from with abundance heaped upon further abundance. Over time, people forget the principles that created the liberty and the fruit of that liberty. Seeing the inequalities in the blessing of individual citizens, an envy of our fellow Americans germinates. The fruit of this unholy thinking is a desire to take our brothers and sisters abundance and give to those less abounding. This can only be accomplished by governmental intervention for the envious.

“from abundance to selfishness;” – The 1960’s were a decade of self masquerading as caring for those less fortunate. Free love, destruction of society’s norms, and a drug culture prevailed in the youth. The 1960’s were a rebellion against the society of abundance without the belief in the principles that created that abundance. The Church, having lost conviction of the truths of the Bible, became hardened and withdrawn. The youth were left on their own to search for answers to the hypocrisy that engulfed them. Instead of returning to the Biblical principles and the God that created the blessings, society entered into the worship of self and self-actualization. The youth of the 60’s saw the hypocrisy, but in their endless faith in their own self-righteousness marched America even further from its Biblical roots.

“from selfishness to complacency;” – Without a Biblical foundation, the rebellion was bound to produce worse fruits than the culture it attempted to replace. With no firm convictions to stand upon, the rebellion dissolved into peace and personal affluence. The loss of Biblical absolutes is bound to lead from convictions to surrender to complacency as no one is sure what the truth is. What is the use of standing for anything, if we are not sure that what we are standing for is truth? The 1970’s saw this complacency as the youth joined the “system” and pursued peace and affluence with little understanding of original principles that America was founded upon.

“from complacency to apathy;” – 1980’s were a brief respite in the cycle. Thanks to the leadership and convictions of Ronald Reagan, America stood its ground against Communism and found that Communism was a paper tiger. The interval was short lived because the President, even with his influence, cannot consistently educate Americans on Biblical truths. Teaching these truths must be a function of the church, which had abdicated their responsibility in an effort to be relative to a lost generation.

The 1990’s saw a near complete surrender to apathy and personal fulfillment. With a near complete rejection of absolute values, people defined their own values and pursued fulfillment in the myriad of choices available to them. People did not care who was running the government as long as they were left alone to pursue the own personal agenda. Government performed by doing focus groups to ascertain what the people wanted and giving it to them, surrendering all leadership responsibilities to the dissimilar wishes of the people. Government, instead of playing the role of umpire and defender of our freedoms began to play the role of a benevolent dictator. This dictator studied to learn what we wanted and offered that to us with only a presumed token price of submission to the almighty sovereignty of government in the affairs of the citizens.

“from apathy to dependency;” – The 2000’s will be remembered as the decade of complete submission to the government’s charity … the American citizen’s dependence upon government for their welfare, health care, social security, etc. It would be unthinkable now for most Americans to live without the direct involvement of Big Brother government. The baby-boomers have wanted for little and have not required their own kids to learn the value of hard work. People don’t appreciate what they don’t earn. They just expect more. The price of dependency is submission of our freedoms to the dictates of the government to pay the way for those who don’t or won’t. The old saying that you boil a frog one degree at a time aptly fits here. If you take a frog and throw him into boiling water, the frog will have enough sense to jump out. But if you turn up the temperature slowly, the frog will open up its pores and will literally be boiled without an attempted escape. Americans are now boiling in our dependency on our government unbelievably unaware.

When the voter discovers they can vote themselves entitlements because the corrupt politicians are more concerned with the power and perks of the office, they will. This will continue until the country bleeds to death.

“from dependency back again to bondage.” – Eventually in our dependence, we see our status falling in the free world as slaves can never perform the functions of free men and women. Although the government still mouths the words of our founding fathers, the words have new meanings. The citizens cannot put a finger on the malady, but they know something is not right. In their desperation, they look for a messiah to save them. Because the Churches are not sharing the message of the true Messiah and the true way to liberty, the citizens look for a worldly messiah … a perceptive leader, with words that tickle the ears. Powerful words and promises of deliverance speak directly to the masses with the promise of salvation.

A shocking truth often learned too late that man cannot save man and only Jesus Christ can liberate the soul in bondage. A people held in bondage to sin can never be responsible to run a free government. The people in bondage will look to the government the way Christians look to their Savior. Government cannot be the savior to the people and was never intended to be so when created by our Founding Families.

America’s spending spree national debt will bankrupt our children’s inheritance on the altar of self indulgence! Ben Franklin said after the creation of our Constitution when asked what type of government was created, “A republic, if you can keep it.” A republic was formed to keep the masses from directly running the government and voting the government into bankruptcy. How far have we traveled from our founding principles and roots?

Our consciences need to be awakened. We do not have to complete this cycle and just as Ronald Reagan interrupted the cycle, we can too! Will it take convictions and guts? Yes, but a Godly people that have studied the truth of our founding principles will not be swayed by the promises of an almighty government.

Our government views all opponents of abortion, illegal immigration, and policy disagreement as terrorist threats. This DHS report was sent to our law enforcement to “watch us!”

The Department of Homeland Security officials have issued a report which links people with pro-life, anti-illegal immigration views, teachers of end-time prophecies, and veterans of war with “right-wing extremist” groups.

In an intelligence assessment issued to law enforcement last week, Homeland Security officials said there was no specific information about an attack in the works by right-wing extremists. But, watch how anyone who agrees with biblical teaching will be included! DHS warns that an extended economic downturn with real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit could foster an environment for extremists to recruit members who may not have been supportive of these causes in the past. In other words, anyone who disagrees with the new government policies have to be watched.

The latest assessment started making its way into the mainstream press after conservative blogs got wind of the analysis. In the unclassified report – “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” – the agency warns that by not imposing new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their communities could lead to terror groups or individuals attempting to carry out attacks. The returning war veterans have skills and experience that are appealing to right-wing groups looking to carry out an attack, according to the report. Well, that’s a slap in the face to our military heroes … and those who have died for this county!

The report says right-wing extremism in the United states can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily “hate-oriented” and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority or rejecting government authority entirely. Again, anti-government being anyone who is not in agreement with the present leadership and policies.

According to the Homeland Security document, right-wing extremism “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as abortion or immigration.” So Christians and churches are once again in the crosshairs due to a stand on the sanctity of life – now anyone against abortion is a potential threat … terrorist.

The report goes on to say that “many right-wing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use.”

The Homeland Security report also makes reference to the rise of right-wing extremism in the 1990s and says factors which enhanced the movement were opposition to things such as abortion and same-sex “marriage.” Anyone on the right by the DHS description is beginning to look like an extremist. I am thinking that if you utilize your freedom of speech and it does not fit the government criteria the you become an extremist … soon to be terrorist. What baloney!

It also says “antigovernment conspiracy theories and ‘end times’ prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition, and weapons.”

The message I seem to be getting here is … forget the real terrorists … watch law abiding Americans who just disagree. Sounds like the denied socialistic tendencies are being ratcheted up to communistic ones! These are Marxist thoughts.

Does the release of this report cause the image of the DHS to begin to look a bit Gestapo-like … or is it just the imagination of a Christian seeing potential persecution … from history?

The good news came on Easter Sunday. Americans said a prayer of thanks when three Navy Seals freed American Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates. By simply doing their job, honorably and effectively, these remarkable men set the right standard for a civilized world.

The bad news is the Seals’ show of strength and leadership has been a singular event in a dangerous world.

In New York In the 1970s, civilization was giving way to predators. Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Police Chief William Bratton’s succeeded in lowering crime in New York City much in the way the piracy issue needs to be handled today.

New York City in the 1970s

It seemed like every other car parked on the street had a sign posted in its window that said: “No Radio.” These “No Radio” signs were a white flag of surrender to the rampant crime that terrorized New York during this time. They were a signal that the criminals were winning; the ultimate sign of the weakness of civilization in the face of the uncivilized predators, aggressors and thieves.

Much like New York 30 years ago, the world today is full of predators and aggressors constantly testing the limits of what they can get away with. They prey on the weak and the innocent. And the signal they are receiving from America and the civilized world is that there are no consequences for their bad behavior.

Hanging Up a “No Radio” Sign in the International Arena

What essentially is happening is the world is hanging up “No Radio” signs … and the Somali pirates are just the latest example. Signs mean nothing to …

… a North Korea firing a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon deliberately on the day the President is giving a big speech on nuclear disarmament, and the civilized world wrings it hands and talks about legal conventions.

… the Iranian dictatorship cheerfully announces that is has 7,300 centrifuges to make nuclear bombs and nothing happens.

… Hamas firing a few more missiles into Israel and everyone turns a blind eye ignoring it.

… a Pakistan that transfers power to the Taliban in its North West Frontier and the world stands idly by.

Strength Works Against Predators … Weakness Only Invites More Predation

As mayor, Rudy Giuliani, along with his police commissioner, William Bratton, transformed New York by doing something very simple in conception but very difficult in execution. They cleaned up crime in New York by showing that strength works against predatory aggressors.

Weakness only invites more predatory aggression.

Mayor Giuliani and Commissioner Bratton were inspired by a theory developed by social scientist James Q. Wilson and criminologist George Kelling called the “broken windows” theory.

If criminals believe there are no consequences, more (and worse) crime will follow.

The Broken Windows theory simply states that if a building has a broken window that is not fixed, the message is sent that no one cares. Vandals believe there will be no consequences for their bad behavior, and consequently, worse behavior will follow. However, fixing the broken window sends a message that people care about their community and are watching, which deters crime.

Giuliani and Bratton acted on the insights of the Broken Windows theory to transform New York from one of the most dangerous cities in America to the safest big city in the country by treating minor crimes like vandalism, prostitution, and loitering like broken windows. They deployed police to where they were most needed using the CompStat (computer statistics) system. And instead of tolerating these crimes and showing weakness to criminals and would-be criminals, the police showed strength. They instituted a “zero tolerance” policy for so-called minor crimes.

When other criminals witnessed this show of strength, they were deterred. Citizens, meanwhile, felt safer walking the streets and taking the subway. They took more responsibility for their neighborhoods and helped make them safer as well.

In New York, restoring a sense of order to the streets meant that police didn’t have to spend all their time responding to actual crime. Their show of strength inspired citizens to care more for their own communities and deterred criminals from committing crimes in the first place.

This is a lesson that all those who now dismiss the Somali pirates as “distractions” would do well to learn. It is only weakness and stupidity to do nothing!

All of us will be forced to pay for President Obama’s record-setting budget increases-as will our children and grandchildren.

A 50-year oldwith a college degree will pay approximately $81,000 over their working life just to pay the interest on the debt in the Obama budget.

A 40-year-oldwill pay $132,000 in debt interest only payments.

A 20-year-old just starting out after college will pay a whopping $114,000 just to service the interest on the debt created by the Obama budget.

By 2019, President Obama’s budget will have added over $9.4 trillion to the federal debt.

And like any form of debt, such as a home mortgage or car loan, this debt comes with a steep debt load. Just like paying off the interest on a credit card, every young American will be responsible for not only paying the principal on President Obama’s budget, but will also have to shoulder the interest payments. The above calculations are just debt interest.

Why is it that these guys who are “Rehabilitated” always feel led to lead. Doesn’t humility and shame enter into the rehabilitation process?

Ten years after he sentenced to 5 1/2 years in state prison for racketeering and grand theft, the former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., is vying to lead the denomination once again and insists that he’s a changed man.

“We all, at one time in our lives, have fallen short of the Glory of God,” in a statement to supporters. “My re-election to the Presidency will witness to the world just what a mighty and loving God we serve. It will be the foundation of understanding true forgiveness from Christ Jesus who is faithful to forgive all of our sins.”

More than a decade ago, Lyons was accused of spending church money on expensive jewelry, a Mercedes-Benz and a $700,000 home bought with a woman who is not his wife.

The charismatic preacher was also accused of diverting money intended for the restoration of Southern churches damaged by arson to other church expenses and swindling more than $4 million from companies that wanted to market life insurance, credit cards and cemetery plots to his convention members.

Despite the allegations and even after he was convicted of racketeering and grand theft, Lyons continued to serve as the head of the National Baptist Convention and did not resign until March of 1999 – the month he was handed his 5 1/2-year prison sentence.

The highly publicized scandal dealt a devastating blow to the denomination – one of the largest religious organizations among African Americans and the second largest Baptist denomination in the world, after the Southern Baptist Convention. It also cost Lyons his marriage, his reputation and almost all he had.

Even when there has been forgiveness, reconciliation, retribution, and personal restoration there is also responsibility a fallen spiritual leader needs to realize. There is a difference between personal restoration and positional restoration. With great power and authority comes great responsibility and accountability. Part of that responsibility is understanding what was done to the family, the church, the denomination, and the position.

The total trust will never be there again. The leader will remain a stumbling block to many. The stigma will always be there and the character and integrity will always be questioned. The authority and integrity of the organizational position will be always be affected.

Lyons should have thought, first, about what he would really lose, and let that help motivate him, instead of his worldly greed. Once you betray it will never be the same … and shouldn’t be.

Lyons should be denied this leadership post and any other positional posts … possibly even continuing to pastor.

President Barack Obama is making some dangerous choices in rejecting the anti-terrorism policies of the Bush administration and backing down from confronting North Korea over its threatening missile program. This weakness in foreign policy will embolden America’s enemies.

As well, the effort to treat terrorism as a criminal justice problem – rather than an act of war – will only bog the country down in pursuit of enemy combatants.

“Dick Cheney is clearly right in saying that, between the court decisions about terrorists and the administration actions, the United States is running greater risks of getting attacked than we were under President Bush,” Gingrich said.

Pointing to what he described as a “vivid demonstration of weakness in foreign policy” the former House speaker Gingrich said Obama’s actions, including his proposal for a resumption of nuclear arms limitation talks, reflect “a dangerous fantasy that runs an enormous risk.

The embarrassing denial of the United States appeal to the United Nations Security Council is a vivid demonstration of this weakness. This is resembles the Carter administration’s weakness in foreign policy.

Emboldened by this a North Korean envoy threatened retaliation if the United Nations imposed further sanctions for the missile launch, warning the U.N. Security Council that it would take “strong steps” if the 15-nation body took any action in response to Pyongyang’s launch of a long-range rocket, Reuters reported.

North Korea is a totally irresponsible dictatorship run by a person who is clearly out of touch with reality. They are responsible for the deaths of several million people because of its totalitarian rule, how much longer should such a regime be tolerated?

Under Kim Jong-Il this dictatorship has been so bad it has starved the people and the average North Korean today is several inches shorter than a generation ago. If we do nothing they are going to continue building nuclear weapons and missiles. If they are this aggressive when they are weak what do you think they will be like as the get stronger?

The United States should have shot down the North Korean missile, while making it very clear that any missile launched with a trajectory in the direction of the United States will be met with an overwhelming counter-attack.

The Obama administration is rapidly undermining the U.S. missile defense system while imagining a fantasy world of trust and cooperation. Ronald Reagan believed we had to have a missile defense system to stop any country from breaking free and blackmailing other countries. Then there were only five nuclear powers: the Soviet Union, China, France, Britain, and the United States. Now we have North Korean, Iranian and Pakistani nuclear developments.

Obama is in a world where Hamas is firing missiles every day into Israel, Iran is building nuclear weapons, and the North Koreans are firing missiles, and he has some wonderful fantasy idea that talking to everybody is all that is required.

That is why it is very dangerous to have a fantasy foreign policy, just like refusing to say we have a war on terror … instead they are just manmade disasters.

I’m not comforted with the thought that 9/11 was a “manmade disaster” when it was a “terrorist attack.”

This “energy tax” will be devastating to all Americans. Estimates have cap-and-trade adding more than $3,000 a year to every American’s bill for gasoline and energy.

In Pennsylvania, for instance, it would mean the doubling of monthly energy bills, whether it’s natural gas or electricity. In more than half of America that’s a huge deal, because in October there is no choice – you have to turn your heat on and that heat will stay on usually through the month of April.

It is also a reduction in the American standard of living due to the potential for job loss in our country. Businessmen are savvy and preemptive and they are looking at what President Obama wants to do with this new tax on energy. Because that’s what this is, a tax on the right to use and consume energy – as if energy didn’t cost enough already.

You might as well call this the ‘China and India Stimulus Plan’ because China and India have said, they were not going to have any part of a cap-and-trade system. So that means American jobs will leave and go overseas fleeing the United States for other countries..

The only way the cap-and-trade plan can be stopped is if the American people rise up and say “NO!”

Senator Harry Reid plans that by the end of August the cap-and-trade bill go through. That gives you, the American people, a little time.These are very real implications – not just for businessmen, not just for a few Americans, but 100% of Americans will be impacted by this new tax on energy.

Monday night on CNN’s Larry King Live, Rick Warren apologized for his support of Prop. 8, California’s voter-approved marriage protection amendment, saying he has “never been and never will be” an “anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist.” “During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop. 8 was going,” Warren claimed.

California mega-church pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren says he apologized to his homosexual friends for making comments in support of California’s Proposition 8, and now claims he “never once even gave an endorsement” of the marriage amendment.

His words now make him a liar considering just two weeks before the November 4 Prop. 8 vote, Warren issued a clear endorsement of the marriage amendment while speaking to church members. “We support Proposition 8 – and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8,” he said.

The following is a complete transcript of Warren’s comments just weeks before the Prop. 8 election:

“The election’s coming just in a couple of weeks, and I hope you’re praying about your vote. One of the propositions, of course, that I want to mention is Proposition 8, which is the proposition that had to be instituted because the courts threw out the will of the people. And a court of four guys actually voted to change a definition of marriage that has been going for 5,000 years.

“Now let me say this really clearly: we support Proposition 8 — and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear.

“This is one thing, friends, that all politicians tend to agree on. Both Barack Obama and John McCain, I flat-out asked both of them: what is your definition of marriage? And they both said the same thing – it is the traditional, historic, universal definition of marriage: one man and one woman, for life. And every culture for 5,000 years, and every religion for 5,000 years, has said the definition of marriage is between one man and a woman.

“Now here’s an interesting thing. There are about two percent of Americans [who] are homosexual or gay/lesbian people. We should not let two percent of the population determine to change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years.

“This is not even just a Christian issue — it’s a humanitarian and human issue that God created marriage for the purpose of family, love, and procreation.

“So I urge you to support Proposition 8, and pass that word on. I’m going to be sending out a note to pastors on what I believe about this. But everybody knows what I believe about it. They heard me at the Civil Forum when I asked both Obama and McCain on their views.”

During a CNN interview on Monday, Warren expressed regret for backing Prop. 8. “There were a number of things that were put out. I wrote to all my gay friends – the leaders that I knew – and actually apologized to them. That never got out,” he admitted.

Additionally, Pastor Warren said he did not want to comment on or criticize the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision last week to legalize same-sex “marriage” because it was “not his agenda.”

Bryan Fischer with the Idaho Values Alliance says Warren is abdicating his biblical role as a pastor. “For Pastor Warren to say that shoring up marriage is not something that’s on his agenda is just something that’s hard to believe for somebody who believes the Bible is our rule for faith and practice,” Fischer notes.

Dr. Jim Garlow, the senior pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, helped spearhead the Prop. 8 effort in California. Garlow admits he is confused and troubled by Pastor Warren’s decision to apologize for supporting Prop. 8.

“Historically when institutions and individuals back away from convictional biblical truth, it is driven primarily by one single factor — and that is the respectability of other people. In other words, much more caring about what other people think about them than what God thinks about them,” he concludes.

Which is it really most important Warren … becoming more Christ-like or angering the gay community? Calling them and apologizing for standing up for God’s truths and principles seems to have won. You have lost all credibility as you revealed what is most important to you … what the gay community thinks rather than what the Bible says? Stick with the word of God … you can still love homosexuals in a biblical context without approving of their lifestyle.

By the way, drop your “Pastor” title … you have lost the privilege to be called “Pastor.”